Wednesday night may have marked the “emperor’s new clothes” moment of the Great Recession, in which the world suddenly realizes its rulers are suffering from a delusion that doesn’t have to be humored. That delusion today is economic fatalism: the idea that nothing can be done to break the paralysis in the global economy and therefore that a “new normal” of mass unemployment and declining living standards is inevitable for years or decades to come.

That such economic fatalism is nonsensical is the key message of a truly historic speech delivered on Wednesday by Adair Turner, chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority and one of the most influential financial policymakers in the world. Turner argues that a virtually surefire method of stimulating economic activity exists today and that politicians and central bankers can no longer treat it as taboo: Newly created money should be handed out to the citizens or governments of countries that are mired in stagnation and such monetary financing of tax cuts or government spending should continue until economic activity revives.

3 Responses

NONONO ! People must WORK for money ! Honor the work ethic, or there will be no goods to buy, as nobody will have made them ! How can you make such a statment? you don’t print prosperity, you work for it; Your ideas are the worst, next to the fed’s blatant abuse of monetary sovereignty of 100 years now. The Constitution has language that specifies that it is the government that should print/own/spend into circulation money…no debt money, and pay it’s bills with it to get it into circulation, which is the only way it is fair to all…and so lower taxes for all while they’re at it…BUT, the amount printed is another matter, and as I would have it, the states would be very involved by virtue of their 10th/nullification to make sure the federal gov. didn’t overprint, but would attempt to prevent inflation/deflation by roughly tracking the GNP and assets of the country to more accurately reflect it’s true worth…as to the fed’s “racket” that has ruined us by “national debt”…
adjudicate each case of fed printing for 100 years for validity of invested funds, not from thin air or illegal funds, and prosecute accordingly with jail time and forfeiture like Iceland, etc.
– Do NOT pay of the national debt as it comes due, but follow the above…NOT Kucinich’s HR6550/2990/NEEDS
– Us National bank issues money without debt for it’s bills when there is not enough tax and fee revenue under strict scrutiny by all branches of gov., and the states with their powers of nullification also in force to whit.
– Private and public banks would compete for validity, with private enterprise being given first preference if they held to federal and state statutes for the sake of the American private enterprise system
– these banks would apply for loan money to the federal central bank for the no-debt money
– They would pay back the principal as it came due and paid so it could be used by the federal gov. for it’s bills
– that way taxes could be reduced, and the system benefits at both ends ! ……..thoughts ?

Zeitgeist the system! Venus Project all the way. Capitalism is for billionaires. Not for us poor folks. I’d work for free. To have a roof over my head. Food in my gut. And no more wars, poverty, homelessness or ill. Anyoneone who wouldn’t? Is selfish at best. Egocentric? I’d say…Don’t know the meaning of humanity.